The Blog!

  • By Nicholas Baker
  • 27 Nov, 2017

Now I have a quick and easy way to share everything I get up to with you!

Keep an eye out on this one, you'll be able to see everything I get up to on here. From my mixing endeavours to live sound gigs, it'll all be here for you to enjoy!
By Nicholas Baker August 9, 2018
Hello World

(That's what most people say when when they first learn to code in C++... It's also what you say when you havent posted on your blog in decades xD)

So yeah, I'm back with a little update that's actually pretty big heh... I've been up to a lot of stuff since I last posted, so if you're reading, thanks for checking in :D

New Job - PSAV

After I finished working with LCM in April, I managed to swing a new job with PSAV as an AV tech. Along with my team, I manage all the audio visual requirements for big corporate events; with a main focus on Audio.

It's cool, but I'm waiting for the busy period to kick in, then I'll see how far I can push it.

New Project - Nando's

My new job takes up a lot of my free time, so when I can, I'm trying to focus on freelance sound design and studio work. As such, I'm super lucky to be able to do some SD for a Nando's video. It's a cool project, and I forgot how much I enjoy sound design :D

Hillsong Conference Europe 2018 - The O2 Arena // Indigo @ The O2

Ahh this was the highlight of the year so far man!
I always love getting involved with the big arena events we put on as a church, so having missed Colour 2018, I was super excited to be mixing monitors for Young and Free Conference 2018, and to be Head of Patch for main stage: so blessed with this opportunity!

Mixing mons for such an incredible youth band (@ THE INDIGO GUYS!!), was so much fun! I remember two years ago standing at that exact desk watching my buddy Matt Fitz (@fitzgeraldaudio) whizzing around, having loads of fun, and this year I got to be the one doing that. The growth I've experienced since then is actually quite astonishing, and praise God that I've been able to achieve and endure through it.

I've never used the VI7000, but I found it pretty easy to use actually. Maybe that's because I spent so much time looking at the offline editor whilst building my showfile? I feel like I'm finally getting to understand the ins and outs of monitor mixing; getting cue and wedge routing correct and how everything is patched. It all makes sense! There are definitely things I would change for next year, but I think the Indigo is going to get the upgrade to D&B PA and Digico SD12s, so that's going to be absolutely insane! That'll be a wicked desk to use, and a fun time building that showfile :D

Dominion Theatre

It's really cool delving further into my craft, and being able to do that every Sunday at Dominion Theatre of all places, is even cooler! I get to learn from the master (@Sola4620) and use some of the best equipment available in the industry, so it's awesome :D I'm having a blast!


Anyway, hope you're having a great day!

Peace Off,
Nic
By Nicholas Baker February 27, 2018
Mons

Ahh, mixing monitors is just awesome, you've gotta love tailoring mixes to suit a musicians needs. Plus making it sound wicked is cool too haha!
From Thursday Evening (22nd) to Saturday Night (24th), I was able to mix for an awesome band, guys and girls who are just so great at their craft and all doing it wholeheartedly for Jesus!

Lives were changed over the weekend, and I'm so lucky to have been a part of something so great! Can't wait to get to Y+F Conference in July and mix mons at the O2 Indigo!

Let's get it!

Nic
By Nicholas Baker February 5, 2018
Drums

So I got the call from Cheri Lyn - check her out here:  https://goo.gl/9hZtLQ. Had to get practicing again, since I went to Spain I hadn't been practicing at all! Dusting off the cobwebs took some time xD

100 Club

The gig went well, so much history in that place! Pictures from eons ago, you could literally feel the musical presence of so many great musicians and bands! It all served to inspire a great performance, not bad for third practice with Cheri's band... Got to see Deep Blue Sea and Chantel McGregor too, great bands, and damn can Chantel shred the guitar! 

Can't wait to get back to more performances, I'll be seeing you all on stage very soon!

Have a great day!
Peace,

Nic
By Nicholas Baker January 5, 2018
Carols

So December 17th brought about Hillsong's annual Carols Production at the SSE Arena! This was so sick, really honoured to be a part of such an awesome team, we smashed stage and band set up so hard. Great to work with everyone at WigWam too! 
There's nothing like seeing Wembley start as an empty space and end in flashy lights and mad PA hangs! Learned so much here :D

New Year

With this new year, I feel that I'm going to push BakedAudio out as far it will reach. Good things are happening over this side, the more I carve out my future, the more I see what's beneath the metaphorical marble. It is good, it is needed, and it is impactful! 
Let's see where this year takes us; all I know is that it's going to be a year of hardcore music making and learning! 

New Gear - See what I did there xD

A studio update will come soon, however, I'm busy rearranging the studio so that it's more suited to what I need it for. Got some new plugins, new monitors, new mics; it's cool! Stay tuned for that :D

Cannot wait for this year guys, I will be more on it with the social stuffs, but most importantly, I'll be so super on it with your music! Can't wait to collab with more artists this year!

Have a great day!
Peace Off,

Nic
By Nicholas Baker December 29, 2017
Mixed FOH for GimmeABBA today :D was really cool! Much more accustomed to their setup and sound now, so it was a really quick get in and sound check today. Everything was sounding pretty banging to be fair!

That is until the track and track bass kept cutting out... Really puzzled me, I thought it was because the router, connected to the mac running QLab, was on a similar channel to all the other devices in the room, so it was picking up mad interference. The room was also packed with sweaty bodies, so I thought that could be interfering with the wireless. 

Turns out the USB on the interface was turning off and on constantly, which meant that it was throwing the tracks off halfway through a song... It was really annoying! I was trying to figure what the problem was throughout the night, everyone kept looking at me, and I couldn't do anything xD Oh well, you live and learn!

Apart from that, the rest of the night went without a hitch, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Cool night, great audience, and an awesome band... Can't argue with that!

Nic
By Nicholas Baker December 13, 2017
I'm not so good at consistently blogging, as you may have noticed. However, I thought I should let you know what I've been up to over the last couple of weeks.

Monitors

So Friday (8th) I was lucky enough to head over to Hillsong Bermondsey to mix monitors for their Young + Free Christmas Formal. I loved every second of it! There's something awesome about tailoring an individual mix to so many musicians on stage. It really gets me buzzing, especially when I can see the musicians jamming out with each other. It might be a million things to look after, but I guess I like that adrenaline rush!

I will say, that M7CL is not the most intuitive desk, but it's actually quite nice as a mons desk. I think I'd like to smash an SD10 in there though, then I'd be super happy, I just need more busses so I can parallel the drums and make them sound even more sick.

Carols Prep

Monday (11th) came about and I headed back to Bermondsey to assist with the tech prep for Hillsong's Christmas Carols on the 17th December (get your tickets here: https://goo.gl/dWXocf ). We mapped the whole of the SSE stage out and ran cables for days, it's going to be a cracker this one! To be fair, the routing on the SD Rack alone is pretty insane hahah!

EP

Oh yeah, I've also had a few musical ideas forming in my head that I would like to get out, so I've decided to create a small EP. I know what you're thinking: "Really?! A drummer, composing? He's actually going to try and make music?"... Yeah, me too... I hope you get ready for some unorthodox approaches people!

Hope you have an awesome week,

Peace Off,
Nic
By Nicholas Baker December 1, 2017
Business Cards

When I first started out on this venture, I was still in Uni, and I did a test run on business cards. In all honesty, they weren't very good, and I hadn't exactly established myself as I have now, so they didn't really work well.

Now that I have a bit more of a brand image I thought this was the perfect opportunity to grab some new and refreshed looking cards to gain some new clients with. We'll see how they work.

Plugins

Also, I bought the Waves SSL G-Bus compressor, CLA-76 and C6 in the Black Friday Sales and let me tell you... All the words are not enough to describe how sick these plugins sound! Next is UAD, I'm so excited for where this is going!

Hope your day is going well!
Peace Off,

Nic